Del Dental GroupAppointments: (310) 822-8118

Julia Fattahi D.D.S.

Del Dental Group

If you're interested in natural-looking bridges and dentures, look no further than Julia Fattahi, D.D.S. who practices in the Playa Del Rey, California area. Using modern materials and techniques, Dr. Fattahi can achieve the natural look you seek. You will be very pleased with the comfortable, long-lasting results.

Del Dental Group is a trusted Playa Del Rey area dental implants practice providing natural-looking, comfortable tooth replacement. We make it our mission to use a gentle touch during the process.

We hold ourselves to the highest standards to replace missing teeth and provide you with natural-looking results. Our goal is to restore your confidence and your bright, healthy smile.

Julia Fattahi, D.D.S. is proud to be a trusted Playa Del Rey area Zoom!® teeth whitening dentist. Our patients love the short amount of time the tooth whitening treatment takes as much as they love the results.

You'll be able to relax in our comfortable surroundings. In just about an hour, you'll have a sparkling white smile!

Would you like your smile to be a bit brighter than it is right now? We can make it happen at Del Dental Group, with professional tooth whitening for brighter natural looking teeth. Dr. Julia Fattahi's Playa Del Rey, CA area office can effectively lighten your stained or discolored tooth enamel. Whiter teeth not only look great, they improve your self-confidence.

Del Dental Group practices the highest infection control standards to protect our patients and ourselves. In the Playa Del Rey, CA area, Dr. Julia Fattahi and her staff strictly observe all Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines. All instruments are cleaned, disinfected and routinely sterilized as recommended by the American Dental Association and the Centers for Disease Control. Whenever possible, disposable, single-use items are used to ensure your safety.

Cosmetic dentistry and plastic surgery both blend health care with artistry and beautification. However, before we can beautify a person's smile, we must have a complete understanding of your dental makeover, not just an appreciation of, beauty.

Some of the first people to understand beauty were not health care specialists, but rather, artists. Great painters and sculptors studied anatomy, perspective, illusion, proportion, idealism and symmetry in order to recreate the beauty they saw.

Esthetic surgeons and cosmetic dentists create better-looking smiles. A cosmetic dentist creates pleasing-looking teeth, while the surgeon helps you feel more like smiling.

If cosmetic dentists and esthetic surgeons want to create beautiful smiles, they must begin to think like the great dental makeover artists. Michelangelo would never have considered one of his masterpieces complete until it was framed properly. The same goes for cosmetic dentistry. If we think of the teeth as the masterpiece, the frame is the surrounding soft tissue (such as the gums, jawbones, facial muscles, lips, and skin). We cannot consider one without the other.

Let's look at the areas of the face that contribute to the smile.

The Lips Form the Smile

The support of the lips is very important. If the teeth are properly contoured and there is a normal bite, the lip support is nearly always adequate. When it is inadequate, it is correctable.

Aside from the teeth, the chin also plays a role in the shape of the lips. A weak chin can give lips a protruded appearance. The solution is to increase the fullness of the chin through cosmetic plastic surgery.

The Mouth Is the Center of the Smile

The next area of cosmetic dentistry focus in your dental makeover is the shape of the mouth. The lips and the teeth are of primary importance to the support of the lips; however, the facial muscles of expression are what control the smile.

When the corners of the mouth are either turned up or down, they convey the feeling of happiness or sadness. Soft tissue corrections around the mouth should be corrected after the teeth and jawbones are corrected.

Other facial features that can be surgically altered to contribute to a terrific smile are:

The nose may shadow the smile; The nose helps to proportion the smile in how it relates to the mouth and cheeks.

The chin aids in determining facial balance; A prominent or deficient chin can affect facial symmetry.

The jaws help shape the face and smile; A deficient upper or lower jaw can divert attention away from the smile and lay focus on the deficiency.

The cheeks lift the corner of the smile; Sagging facial tissue that hides nicely-shaped lips, cheeks, and jawbones can be "lifted" to once again feature a pleasing smile.

The brows and lids usually contribute greatly to the smile; thick upper eyelids that make people look tired or sad can be thinned.

The skin may be wrinkled by smiling or frowning; Small facial muscles placing tension on the skin sometimes cause fine aging lines. They can be corrected through chemical peels, Botox injections, dermabrasion or a combination of these along with a facelift.

For further information on your dental makeover, consult with a cosmetic dentist, dermatologist or plastic surgeon. Each of these specialists works in close relationship with each other and can further counsel you on the best cosmetic dentistry treatment to improve your smile.

By Benjamin O. Watkins, III, DDS

+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.

Considering Porcelain Veneers?

Maybe you've thought about cosmetic dental work - but felt a little vain to consider it.

Or the appearance of your teeth never bothered you much, because your dental health is pretty good.

But fixing a small functional problem can sometimes yield wonderful, unanticipated dividends. Mary, for instance, had a few dental imperfections most of us could live with. But she was hampered from time to time by a lispy "s" sound.

Mary had gapped teeth, a diastema, which caused a slight but noticeable speech defect. She also showed evidence of life in the fast lane, too: teeth worn down, probably from nervous clenching of the jaw muscles or grinding teeth.

In Mary's case - and every case is different - porcelain veneers saved the day. Her cosmetic dentist began with a functional and esthetic evaluation to determine what shape and contour would best solve Mary's diastema problem. More tooth length was proposed, to give her a more youthful, proportioned appearance, too.

Impressions were taken, and sent off to the lab for fabrication. On the next visit, her teeth were cleaned and etched chemically, the dental veneers were cemented into place, and "cured" with a special light to seal them.

Mary's speech problem evaporated. Dentistry fixed that. But cosmetic dentistry did more than perfect her speech.

WHEN FUNCTION = BEAUTY

Like an acrylic fingernail, veneers cover the front surface of the teeth. Porcelain dental veneers are strong and, by the way, look great.

As an architect of more that 60 years, I have learned that only the beautiful is practical. And universally, anything that is truly practical, functional, and useful is beautiful.-Frank Lloyd Wright

+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.